Corn Festival Raffle Quilt: Not as Easy as it Looks

 

 

This year’s Corn Festival Raffle Quilt, which was assembled by the women of the Knox County Kut-Ups Quilting Club, turned out to be a much more challenging endeavor than originally expected.

The pattern for the quilt was featured in McCall’s Quilting Magazine as a “quick quilt” titled “Maisy Daisy”, which was submitted by a member for consideration to be the next raffle quilt near the end of 2015.

The club went wild about the design and liked the quilt pattern mainly consisted of mixed one-and-a-half inch strips, which could be partially constructed by individual members with fabrics they already had. They went to work on it right away.

It wasn’t until all the strip sets started to be collected a few months later, the club realized it was not an “easy to assemble” design. Not even a little.

   “We didn’t realize how hard this quilt was going to be,” said Carla Gower, club member and professional quilter. “Each block had eight tiny triangles, so hundreds of tiny triangles had to be added. Once we got the strips cut into pieces, none of them were the right size. We had to size all of them down. It took a lot of time.”

Many fabrics make up the individual flower petals adorning the quilt, which are strip sets cut and arraigned diagonally. A “Maisy Daisy” petal resembles the design of a leaf and consists of ten different fabrics.

   Each of the 42 quilt blocks, one “Maisy Daisy” each, is made of four smaller blocks.

There are 168 small blocks in the entire quilt. Each small block includes 11 different fabrics, which means there are 44 fabric pieces in each big block. Just counting the individual quilt blocks, without considering the boarders or sashing, there are 1,848 fabric pieces – all of which were donated and assembled, as a group effort, by the members of the club.

   The club hosted several workshop days where members gathered in the basement of the United Methodist Church in Edina armed to the tooth with sewing machines, irons, thread, rotary cutters and bobbins and spent their mornings sewing away.

   Once the sashing and boarders were added, and the quilt top completed, the club enlisted Susan Chidester of Glenwood to machine quilt the king-sized endeavor. The quilting on the quilt is in a pattern of flowers and berries.

“We put a lot into this one. It was quite the feat in engineering,” said Gower.

The quilt will be on display in the Knox County Library window, prior to the festival.

During the festival, the quilt will be on display at the club’s annual Quilt Show, which will be held on Saturday, September 10, 2016 in the Harris Building (between The Clothes Closed and The Edina Sentinel on North Main Street) from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free to the public.

Members of the public, who wish to enter their quilts in the Quilt Show, can bring them in on Friday morning, September 9, between 9:00 a.m. and noon. Judging in nine categories will begin promptly at noon the same day. First, second and third place ribbons will be awarded for quilts entered in the following categories: Baby, Antique, Small Pieced, Large Pieced, Small Applique, Large Applique, Small Embroidery, Large Embroidery and Hand Quilted. The Viewer’s Choice category will be awarded around 4:00 p.m. the day of the Quilt Show.

Chances on this year’s Corn Festival Raffle Quilt can be purchased, for only $1 each, from any member of the club or during the Quilt Show.

The winner of the Raffle Quilt will be announced at the end of the Quilt Show.

This story was featured in the August 24, 2016 edition of The Edina Sentinel.